Method of operating- gates for



NiTED sTATns rATENl'r onirica JNO. C. SHOREY, OF ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, ASSIGNOR 'IO HIMSELF AND A. Ji WEBSTER, OF ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

METHOD 0F OPERATING GATES FOR WATER-WHEELS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 15,463, dated July 29, 1856.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, JOHN C. SHOREY, of Rochester, in the county of Straiford and State of New Hampshire, have'invented an Improvement in the Application of Gates to Reaction or Turbine Water-I/Vheels; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 exhibits a top View of a water wheel and its flume with my improvement applied to the same. Fig. 2 is a vertical and central section of such.

In the above mentioned drawings the gates are represented as entirely open in order to more correctly exhibit atop view of the wheel and the discharging opening of its flume. In Fig. 3, however, I have eX- hibited a top view of the gates and flume in the form they assume when folded together, the posit-ion of the water wheel being shown by dotted lines. In these drawings A represents a reaction water wheel aiiixed to an upright shaft B, the wheel being placed directly under and concentric with a circular opening C, made through the bottom of a flume or reservoir D. The foot of the shaft is pivoted upon a horizontal timber or sill E, which is extended through the middle of the flume D, and provided with a journal I) at its top or upper end, which projects into a suitable bearing made in or applied to a transverse bar c, carried across the flume, as shown in Fig. 2. On the floor of the flume there is arranged flatwise two gates F, Gr, they being placed on opposite sides of the shaft and made to turn horizontally on fulcra disposed as seen at f, f. To each of these gates, one of two rack bars h, L, is hinged and at that end of it which is opposite to that at which the gate has its fulcrum f. In both of these rack bars a single pin ion I engages, said pinion being fixed upon a vertical shaft K, which may be revolved by a crank or some other suitable device applied to its upper end. In order to maintain the racks in close contact with their gear or pinion I, two vert-ical rolls L, L, are arranged with respect to the racks as shown in the drawings. By rotating the shaft K, in one direction or the other, as the case may require, the said gates may be simultaneously moved asunder or away from the shaft yor drawn together or toward it. When opened apart to their greatest extent, they nearly if notI entirely uncover the whole'top surface of the wheel or the discharging opening of the flume.

This manner of applying and operating the gates has the advantage of enabling me not only suddenly to expose nearly if not all the top surface of the wheel to the direct weight and pressure of the water in the flume, but readily to gain access to the wheel in case it may have become clogged or it maybe necessary to relieve its buckets from grass chips or other extraneous matters whenever such may have become wedged therein, also to regulate with facility the supply of water to the wheel.

I claim- Applying the two gates to the wheel and fiume in manner and so as to operate with respect to the discharging opening and the wheel shaft substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my signature this fourteenth day of June,

JOHN C. SHOREY.

Witnesses:

DoMiNicUs HANsoN, OYRUS K. SANBORN. 

